A Much-Needed Relief

It was a morale-boosting win for India at the Lord's. The 23-run win over England yesterday also ended their winningdrought. India lost the series, but the win came as a much-needed relief for all the team members. It only suggestshow badly India needed a favourable result.

The dysfunctions of the team that were discussed for over the last two months should now hopefully come to an end.The boys really applied themselves with rigour and resilience to get out of the rough patch.

A victory always brings back the self-confidence among the players and they start looking at the game in a new light. The communication within the team also gets a lift, propagating positive feelings for oneanother.

It was a great sight to watch Ashish Nehra running in with more purpose. As the new ball bowler, that's the kind ofresponse expected from him. After his World Cup heroics against the same opponents, Ashish had not really inspiredconfidence. Under the present situation, it may be hard to leave him out of the team. But at the same time, it would bedifficult for him to be the first choice for the final eleven. Captains sometimes find it hard to evaluate such players. 

Yesterday's performance should augment Nehra's game to the next level. He should now be made to bowl more in the netsto sustain the rhythm. When a bowler bowls well, it is always important for him to bowl more to maintain the form. I hopeAshish stays fit and performs with the same agility during the ICC Champions Trophy.

Irfran Pathan is still the cardinal part of the Indian attack. The team should find the third bowler between Balaji and Ajit Agarkar. I strongly feel that India should go with three seamers.

Harbhajan Singh is in scintillating form at the moment. The control with which he is bowling is truly world class, asone cannot remember him bowling a single bad ball in the last two matches. By breaking the hugeseventh-wicket partnership between Ashley Giles and Michael Vaughan, he turned the matchin India's favour.

Dinesh Karthik made a remarkable comeback with one of the best stumpings seen in international cricket in recent times.It was a good enough an act by the youngster to drive home the point that he belongs to the international arena.

The dismissal of Vaughan must have worked in reinforcing his self-belief, which perhaps took a little beating when hebatted for the first time at this level. International cricket is all about mind over matter and only such performances canbuild confidence and sustain a youngster.

Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly played with great determination. When it comes to returning to form, no one knows it better than Rahul. His knock was by no means up to his own standards, but the way he grinded the innings to spendmore time at the centre was simply commendable. No matter how much time you spend at the nets or in front of the system,form always comes back under constant pressure at the centre.

It is always important for the captains to perform and lead from the front. With a few runs behind him, Ganguly's body language, I have noticed, changes drastically on the field. Naturally, captainshave to lead by example. But this strange phenomenon of getting run out after a mix-up isbecoming very productive for the opponents. The top brass of the team should work together to eliminate such mistakes.

The win will certainly lift the spirit of the team, though there are some areas, which still need to be ironed out. Winning breeds belief and that is the main ingredient to find form.

PTI